MONTERREY, Mexico Ė Forensic experts found skeletal remains and evidence of possible disappearances while scanning a field used by the Zetas criminal group to kill its rivals in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, state justice authorities said on Wednesday.

While inspecting the area, the experts found buried some handcuffs and skeletal remains that will be examined in laboratories to determine if they are of human origin, a spokesperson of Nuevo Leonís Attorney Generalís Office confirmed.

The piece of land, located in a desert area around 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, was examined at the initiative of the United Forces for Our Disappeared of Nuevo Leon, said the groupís president, Leticia Hidalgo.

The forensic experts were accompanied by an anthropologist, a trained dog and a dozen family members of missing persons belonging to this group, Hidalgo explained.

The experts from the attorney generalís office had also inspected this site during the first few months of 2016, when they found human remains that allowed them to identify 56 people.

The site is part of a partially destroyed ranch used by the Zetas to burn those they killed in the municipalities of Garcia, Escobedo, Monterrey and San Nicolas in the Nuevo Leon state.

The attorney generalís office has identified five properties that were used by the criminal group as ďextermination camps,Ē where they have found burnt bones and teeth that have allowed them to identify over 100 people.

Official figures put the number of disappearances related to organized crime between 2007-2016 at 1,300.

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